was yesterday? I bought a huge tray of ground beef at Sam's yesterday, dated for yesterday and I threw it in the fridge and forgot about it! Do you think it would still be good tomorrow? It still looks red.

Pam - If your refrigerator is nice and cold, 40 degrees, you should be OK. I would wrap up any part of it that you aren't going to use tomorrow and freeze it, though. Uncooked meat usually keeps up to three days in your fridge. Hope this helps.

The color isnt important. They put something in the meat to make it red/pink at the store. Does it smell ok? If it were me,I'd put it in freezer bags tonight and only thaw what you will need. Unless it smells bad,then throw it out,lol!

They always build a margin of error into use by dates (to protect themselves). I have used meat a couple of days past the date with no problems. Of course, if it looks yucky or smells bad, then don't use it.

Yes or if it feels slimy. I think meat always has a kind of slimy coat on it when it turns. I always buy the marked down meat at Sam's and Walmart. I just freeze it right away and only unthaw what I will cook with..

YOU CANNOT ALWAYS TELL IF FOOD IS SAFE BY THE SMELL, LOOK OR TASTE OF IT!

If it were that easy, no one would ever get food poisoning, would they? A lot of bacteria have no smell, no taste, give no suspicious look to food.

Other foods, I'd say you were probably safe a day or 2 past the expiration date. Ground beef is something else entirely. Because it has so much surface area, it will spoil much more quickly than a roast or steak would. Also, because it's been handled, manipulated, put through machines where many other meats have gone--there's a much greater chance of contamination at the store.

If you bought it yesterday, and the date was yesterday, I'd take the time this morning to cook it all up--brown it loose in a saucepan, or make burgers and grill--cooking it WELL done. Then freeze in meal-sized portions. You can use the cooked ground beef in casseroles, for sloppy joes, in spaghetti sauce. Grilled burgers can be microwaved for a quick dinner another night.

But I definitely wouldn't let ground beef sit around for another day or 2--it's playing Russian Roulette--you'll get away with it 4-5 times out of 6, but having had food poisoning, I assure you, it's nothing you want to visit upon your family. Be safe.

I would eat the beef if it smelled fine. Just be sure to cook it thoroughly. As far as red dye in the meat - I doubt it. It would have to be listed on the package as an additive. In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration gave several large meat packers permission to inject carbon monoxide into the meat package not red dye.